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Florida may not always look a lot like Christmas, but that doesn’t mean Tampa Bay won’t have an abundance of holiday cheer. Known for its festive, politically timely Christmas Cards, Southern Strategy Group – Tallahassee’s leading lobbying house – is adding a more personal “jingle and mingle” this year with its inaugural Tampa Bay Christmas Party, scheduled Monday, Dec. 7. The event begins 5:30 p.m. at the Fifth Third Building, 201 East Kennedy Blvd., Suite 1450 in Tampa. During the festivities,…

Fatima Perez, most recently chief of staff for Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, will become the new state government affairs regional manager for Koch Companies Public Sector LLC. With more than 15 years’ experience in state government, Perez has been a senior adviser to former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and a senior legislative aide in the Florida Legislature, working for members of both chambers, including former Sen. Walter “Skip” Campbell and former State Rep. Annie Betancourt. Perez also worked as an…

Ballard Partners tops the compensation list for lobbying the Florida Legislature in the third quarter of 2015, bringing in $2.22 million, according to newly released compensation reports. Registered lobbying firms took in almost $32 million in fees — $31,775,000 to be (somewhat) exact — between July and September 2015 to represent clients in front of Florida lawmakers. In addition to Ballard — the only firm reporting over $2 million in compensation — three other companies cracked the $1 million mark: Ronald…

Stacey Smelser Webb, a Tallahassee-based lobbyist with Southern Strategy Group, died Sunday. She was 46. Webb died after experiencing complications from recent heart surgery at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, said her husband, John Webb. Her firm issued a statement saying Webb “saw each new challenge as an opportunity to grow and learn.” “Although small in stature, she carried within her a champion’s heart, and she tirelessly worked to help her clients and her partners,” the lobbying firm said. “We grieve her passing,…

As a partner at Southern Strategy Group, Miami native Nelson Diaz maintains strong relationships with both the Florida Legislature and contacts in his home base of Miami-Dade County, and was recently chosen as chair of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County. Previously, Diaz worked as chief legislative aide to former Speaker of the Florida House, now-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. Here is the file on Nelson Diaz: Significant other? Children? Grandkids? Amazing wife (Lisette) and beautiful 4-year-old girl (Liliana Maria). In 25 words or less,…

Southern Political Report, a glossy quarterly focused on insider aspects of Dixie politics, has ranked the top law and lobbying firms in each Southern state for its newest issue. The top “small firms” (the magazine’s words, not ours) devoted to governmental affairs consulting in Florida were listed as follows: Ballard Partners Southern Strategy Group Capital City Consulting Corcoran & Johnston The Rubin Group According to the magazine’s methodology, rankings were compiled based on “the results of an online survey sent to lobbyists and…

In preparation for the upcoming 2016 Florida legislative session, Florida Businesses for a Competitive Workforce (FBCW) named GOP consultant Patrick Slevin as its new campaign manager. Slevin will help lead the bipartisan coalition to pass the Competitive Workforce Act, which seeks to modernize state law to include anti-discrimination protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. During the 2015 session, state Rep. Holly Raschein, a Key Largo Republican, and Democratic state Sen. Joe Abruzzo from Boynton Beach filed…